By Kyle LoJacono
Pasco Regional Medical Center in Dade City now has a noninvasive surgical option to treat acid reflux disease, the most common cause of heartburn.
The new procedure, called Trans-oral Incisionless Fundoplication (TIF), is being used by Dr. Pandurangan Krishnaraj, a general surgeon, and Dr. Soloman Singh, a gastroenterologist. Pasco Regional is the first east Pasco County hospital to offer TIF.
“The TIF procedure can significantly improve quality of life for our patients,” Krishnaraj said. “(Reflux) is an anatomical problem which needs an anatomical solution. Reflux medications like PPIs (proton pump inhibitors) can help relieve patients’ heartburn symptoms but don’t solve the underlying anatomical problems or prevent further disease progression. Even on PPIs, many patients are still unable to eat the foods they want or have to sleep sitting up to reduce nighttime reflux.”
Krishnaraj also said new studies suggest long-term use of such PPIs can lead to problems absorbing minerals from food such as calcium. Such medications are not needed after TIF treatment.
“After the TIF procedure, clinical trials show that most patients can eat and drink foods they avoided for many years,” Krishnaraj said. “Reflux no longer impacts their life like it previously did.”
The TIF procedure is based on established principles of surgical repair of the anti-reflux barrier, except it is performed within the body by going through the patient’s mouth. The procedure creates a valve between the stomach and esophagus, which restores the natural way the body prevents the reflux of acid into the esophagus.
The procedure is still relatively new but has been widely used during the last few years and has resulted in no long-term problems in patients.
Acid reflux is a very common problem, affecting about 60 million Americans each year, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention records.
“Recent studies of the TIF procedure have shown that it can reduce patients’ dependency on medications with 79 percent of patients remaining off their daily medications after two years and experiencing a dramatic improvement in their quality of life,” Singh said. “We are very excited to be able to offer our patients the same incredible benefits of more invasive procedures, but without incisions.”
Along with eliminating the discomfort of heartburn, the noninvasive nature of TIF allows people to recover from surgery faster because there is no incision, not even the relatively small cut needed for laparoscopic surgery.
The fact that TIF requires no cutting of the skin and muscle is a relatively new step in surgery. Laparoscopic procedures, while minimally invasive, still create a small incision in order to complete such an operation.
Typical laparoscopic procedures create several seven-millimeter-long incisions. Such surgeries also expose the body to the outside air. None of these aspects are part of TIF.
For more information on the procedure, call Pasco Regional at (352) 521-1100 or visit www.pascoregionalmc.com.
